Website Design : How To Style And Layout Text

Getting the text part of your website design correct is not difficult. All you have to do is adhere to the guidelines laid out below...

- Only make use of fonts that are available on all computers, such as arial, helvetica and verdana. Whilst you might not consider these fonts to be the most visually appealing, they are the most practical ones to use. One reason for this is that they are the easiest to read on a computer screen.

Also, every computer definitely has these fonts stored on them. If you choose a fancy font, then many computers will not have it stored, in which case the computer will automatically select another to display your website in, and so you will not be able to tell how your website is going to render on other people's screens.

- Do not use small font sizes as visitors to your website will not even try to read it. You may have good eyesight but many people do not, and so you have to take the middle ground rather than just making your website for yourself.

Going with a font size of 11 or 12 is recommended for the main body of your written content, and you should make your sub-titles and heading at least a font size or two larger. Be consistent too, by ensuring that you use the same font sizes for your content, sub-titles and headings throughout every page of your website.

- Keep the width of your paragraphs to roughly 15 words per line. This is necessary so that people only have to move their eyes to read your website, and not their head.

This number is based on research and studies that have been carried out which show that 15 words is as far most people's field of vision will stretch without them needing to move their head. Not every line has to be precisely 15 words, as some sentences will a greater or lesser number of small words such as 'a', 'to', 'and', etc., so you just need to use that number as a rough guide.